Wikitravel:Tips for new contributors

Absolutely anyone should feel free to plunge forward and share some knowledge on Wikitravel. If you're starting to find yourself getting more involved, the following tips and tricks might help you get up to speed working on Wikitravel articles and participating in the Wikitravel community.

You are the most important resource Wikitravel has. Please feel free to ask questions, make comments, request help, or anything else you need. Your knowledge makes Wikitravel a better guide; your comments on our processes makes Wikitravel a better project.

We have a help section with lots of info on how to work with our software.

Wikitravel has a large and active community of people who want to make this project a success. You may not see us at first, but we're here!

If you have some particular info you want to share, we have some guidelines about where you can stick it. If you're still not sure, just put it anywhere: someone else will move it to the right place.

Our manual of style gives some ideas about how we like to have articles formatted.

Articles you work on can and probably will be changed by other people.

Every article has an associated Talk page where we discuss how best to work on that article. If you're wondering what's up with some article, why it's this way instead of that, check the talk page by clicking the discussion link.

Once you have a user account, other Wikitravellers can send you messages through your user talk page. When there are new messages on your talk page, you'll see a blinking red circle next to the "my talk" link on any Wikitravel page. You should check to see what someone has to say.

Wikitravel is a travel guide, not a travel journal. Try to share what you learned, not what you did. Avoid using first person pronouns like "I" or "we".

There are lots of articles on Wikitravel that "aren't quite there yet". Don't assume that just because something's left out, misspelled, or weirdly formatted that we want it that way.

Other people working on Wikitravel are here to share their knowledge and make a great Web site. In dealing with other contributors, assume that people are trying to do what's best for travellers and for the project.

Wikitravel is not just an online guide Web site. We want to make guides that can be used as printed pages for travelers who are away from a computer.

Your contributions should be original work, created by you. Please don't copy text or images from other Web sites to Wikitravel.

Wikitravellers sometimes use Wikitravel:Jargon in edit summaries or discussion pages.